Illinois Football: Ranking the last 10 Illini recruiting classes

5. Class of 2013

The class of 2013 ended up being a lot better on paper than I had first expected. Illinois was coming off a 2-10 campaign in the first year under Tim Beckman, so this made me expect a lower level group coming in. On paper, that was not the case.

Illinois snagged two four-star recruits and 13 three-star recruits in the class of 2013. This class ended up being ranked as the No. 47 class in the nation that year as well.

The four-star recruits for the Illini were Aaron Bailey and Caleb Day. Bailey ended up playing sparingly before transferring out of the program and finishing with Northern Iowa. He was supposed to be the next great Illini quarterback but that never happened.

Day came in highly rated, but he really didn’t pan out either. He was a reserve for most of his career and couldn’t consistently see the field. There were some highlights in this class, though.

Dawuane Smoot came in as three-star but outplayed his ranking. He ended up getting picked in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft. James Crawford and Christian DiLauro both went undrafted this year but have been picked up as priority free agents. Chunky Clements didn’t get draft in 2017 but was picked up by the Houston Texans.

While this class had the top players not perform, there were some solid players spread out from top to bottom. This class was in the middle of the pack when it comes to the last 10 years.